5.  The applicant was born in 1961 and lives in Chişinău.
6.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
7.  On 8 August 2006 the applicant was arrested on suspicion of forging official documents, possessing marijuana for personal use and selling counterfeit foreign currency. He pleaded guilty to the first charge, but denied having committed the other offences.
8.  On 10 August 2006 he was released, but he was arrested again on 16 August 2006 and placed in prison no. 13 in Chişinău on 26 August 2006.
9.  On 20 February 2007 he was convicted of the offence to which he had confessed and acquitted on the rest of the counts. He was sentenced to a prison term of six months and six days and released immediately, because he had already been detained for an equivalent period of time pending the trial.
10.  On 18 September 2007 the Chişinău Court of Appeal partially quashed that judgment and increased the applicant’s sentence to two years. On 3 March 2008 he was arrested again and was detained in prison no. 13 in Chişinău between 6 March 2008 and 27 December 2009 (when he was transferred to prison no. 5 in Cahul). On 10 April 2010 he was transferred to Pruncul prison hospital no. 16 for tuberculosis treatment.
11.  On 15 July 2008 the Supreme Court of Justice ordered a rehearing of the case by the Chişinău Court of Appeal.
12.  On 16 December 2008 the Chişinău Court of Appeal convicted the applicant on all counts (see paragraph 7 above), sentencing him to seven years and six months of imprisonment.
13.  On 30 June 2009 the Supreme Court of Justice partly upheld that conviction, sentencing the applicant to seven years and two months of imprisonment.
14.  On 17 November 2009 the Supreme Court of Justice adopted a judgment by which it corrected an error made in its final judgment of 30 June 2009. As a result the entire period of the applicant’s detention pending trial was deducted from the applicant’s prison term. The applicant continues to serve his sentence.
15.  The applicant was detained in prison no. 13 from 16 August 2006 until 20 February 2007, as well as from 6 March 2008 until 27 December 2009. He described the conditions of detention as follows.
16.  The cell measured 20 square metres and accommodated thirteen to twenty detainees at a time. It was damp and dirty. In summer it was extremely hot, forcing everyone to go half naked; during the winter it was very cold.
17.  The applicant was allegedly subjected to passive smoking despite his tuberculosis, of which the prison authorities were aware from the very beginning of his detention. The one small window was covered by a metal sheet with small holes, preventing daylight from reaching the cell.
18.  Tap water was not always available, which made it impossible to eliminate the smell from the toilet, situated just 1.5 metres from the dining table. Access to a shower was ensured only once a week. The cell was infested with parasitic insects.
19.  The applicant allegedly asked on a number of occasions to be given appropriate medical assistance, but this was refused as the necessary medication was not available (the applicant did not specify which medication and for what illness it had been required). He also asked for better food and extra time for his daily walks in order to improve his state of health, but these requests were also refused.
20.  According to the applicant, the food served smelled bad and was virtually inedible.
21.  In a letter of 8 December 2006 in reply to a complaint by the applicant, the Head of the Penitentiaries Department informed him that during a check it had been established that the cell in which the applicant and five other persons were detained, cell no. 57, was designed to accommodate twelve persons.
22.  On 21 September 2009 the applicant went on a hunger strike and was moved to another cell.
23.  The Government provided details concerning the applicant’s conditions of detention, including the surface area of each cell in which he had been detained in prison no. 13, such as cell no. 57, which measured 22.3 square metres. Each cell was well lit and had a window and working ventilation. Each cell was equipped with a sink and a toilet separated from the rest of the cell by a wall. Food was prepared in accordance with the regulations and regularly checked for quality by the prison doctor. Heating was secured through the use of the prison’s autonomous thermal generator. Smoking was prohibited in the cells and was authorised in specially designated areas only; the applicant himself smoked twenty cigarettes a day. Moreover, the applicant was tested extensively for tuberculosis since his first placement in a cell in prison no. 13. He had suffered from that illness in 2004 in Ukraine and was therefore known to have an increased risk of recurrence and was treated accordingly. The Government submitted evidence of such medical check-ups and treatment, which also included treatment for other illnesses he was suffering from.